A REVIEW OF THE RIGHT TO LIBERTY – AS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT AND LINCHPIN OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES

Abstract

The right to liberty is a fundamental human right, legally recognized by constitutions, declarations, and international treaties, including the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (ACHPR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as well as implied references in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Liberty is one of the most essential guiding principles of democratic societies – which is centered on the rights, autonomy, and agency of the free and independent man, to practice or participate in legitimate endeavors, without unjustified or prohibitory interventions by state authorities, especially through arrests, detentions, or other forms of confinement. Consequently, violations of the right to liberty are centered on unjustified interferences, with the rights and fundamental freedoms of the individual through detentions or incarcerations that are not qualified on the basis of legitimate objectives. Thus, authoritarian or corrupt regimes can suppress political opinion, activism, civil or economic rights through the force of military or law enforcement agencies that act contrary to constitutional or statutorily defined procedures, and contrary to human rights law – to use imprisonment or enforced disappearance as a means of confining or neutralizing targets/victims. Hence, verifying the essentiality of a guaranteed right to liberty, as the catalyst for a sustainable culture of democracy, and the exercise of individual autonomy, freewill, and wherewithal for associational and development-oriented activities, as well as activisms.